2 years ago, I chanced upon the opportunity to be a part of WWF?s Earth Hour. Equipped with a basic understanding of climate change and its accelerating impacts on our planet, I took the leap and decided to give it a try. And I have to mention what a meaningful and rewarding ride it has been! Here are two things I learnt during my journey at Earth Hour which I?d like to share - I hope you enjoy it!

Earth Hour is more than just an hour:

One of the biggest misconceptions of Earth Hour is that it?s only for an hour. But over the years I have got experience and realised that it?s not just the one hour. Earth Hour is a global movement that aims to harness the power of the crowd to achieve concrete environmental impact. This is represented in the Earth Hour 60+ logo, where the ?+? signifies climate action that extends beyond the symbolic lights out event. Once I had participated in my first Earth Hour I felt like doing it more often and this was the whole point of the event, to save electricity and power throughout the year, whenever possible and not just for that one hour.

The experience convinced me I should do this every day, not just once a year:

It?s not only for that hour, that moment when the clock strikes - 8.30 p.m. one Saturday evening in March every year and the 60 minutes that follow. Earth Hour is something I do very often in my everyday life. I do it almost everyday but obviously not for an hour straight. I turn off the lights and appliances when not needed for AT LEAST an hour a day. Sometimes I save electricity by using only one light because two lights bulbs are not always needed. I have to admit once I started practicing this my electricity bills have reduced significantly. 

This year for Earth Hour I was travelling and I wasn?t able to attend the Earth Hour Walkathon held in my country. But this didn?t stop me from doing my bit for the event. I still did something but very different from what I do every year. As I was travelling I was staying at a hotel apartment in Nepal I decided to go on ?Lights Out Mode? in our hotel room. At 8:30 I lit two candles on my desk and ate dinner with my family. I was surprised to see that even some areas of Nepal had turned their lights off and it really looked beautiful to see candles in the air.

The Earth hour event made me understand the ways to live an eco-friendly life. We should have such events more often and practice these everyday.